The phase of flight prior to landing an aircraft is referred to as “approach,” requiring an approach procedure. Approach procedures at a crowded landing situation may involve multiple aircraft lining up sequentially and following each other (in a manner often referred to as “in-trail”), at the direction of Air Traffic Control (ATC). Approach procedures may be instrument based or visual. A visual approach requires the pilot of an ownship to be able to see, out-the-window of the ownship, another “target” aircraft, and follow it, for at least a portion of the approach procedure, perhaps until the target aircraft lands. In undertaking a visual approach, the pilot accepts responsibility to maintain, until landing, an ATC designated visual in-trail “separation distance” between the ownship and the target aircraft, and the weather conditions must be suitable for visibility.
In low visibility instances, a pilot may intermittently lose his out-the-window view of the target aircraft. In those instances, the pilot may additionally rely on a Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI) to track the target aircraft and maintain the designated separation distance, thereby being able to maintain or not abandon the visual approach. In support of this, procedures for CDTI Assisted Visual Separation (CAVS) have been developed. Conventionally, the CDTI is displayed as a top down view on a lateral, or navigation, display on an aircraft display system. As may be readily understood, the presentation of CAVS information in a top down view either completely omits or ineffectively conveys a variety of relevant vertical visual approach information.
Accordingly, systems and methods directed to improvements in the presentation of CAVS procedures on an aircraft display system over what is conventionally available are desirable. The desirable systems and methods employ a vertical display, thereby providing additional relevant visual approach information, such as a vertical distance between the ownship and the target aircraft, and descent rates of the ownship and the target aircraft. The following disclosure provides these technological enhancements over conventional CAVS procedures, in addition to addressing related issues.